1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an allocation planning technology, and in particular to a computer-implemented method of classifying demand data for one allocation term (e.g., one month).
2. Description of the Related Art
In factory management, a demand plan is usually requested over a long time, such as one year or 18 months. A demand plan may be divided into many terms, each term having its own demand data. As an example, an 18-month demand plan of one month terms contains demand data for each term. Generally speaking, the supply manufacturer produces a supply plan corresponding to the demand plan for supply capacity management. The supply plan includes supply data corresponding to the demand data of the demand plan.
Because many variables may appear in the duration of the supply plan, the supply plan should be examined each term, such as once a month, to ensure that it can be maintained. If any exceptions occur, such as unexpected machine shutdown or a wrong recipe applied in a working tool, the supply manufacturer must respond to maintain the supply plan. Especially in the currently-competitive market, the maintenance of a supply plan directly impacts quality of service, and, thereby customer satisfaction.
The goals of maintaining a supply plan is to satisfy orders totally, to satisfy demand data if possible, and distinguish the exceeding part of supply data from demand data. That is to say, demand data should be prioritized for better utilization of further capacity management.
Presently, commercial supply plans do not reflect or embody these priorities. Instead, supply plans generally consider only current demand and order data, while ignoring the relative information. Consequently, commercial supply plan applications generally are not suitable for long-term factory management, especially for a manufacturer with a supply plan of multiple considerable phases, such as IC manufacturers or airline companies.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,393,332 discloses a method and system for providing sufficient availability of manufacturing resources to meet unanticipated demand. The method considers the relationship between an order and a manufacturing plan and attempts to fulfill the order by changing the manufacturing plan. However, the method disclosed focuses on the demand plan daily arrangement, not suitable for manufacturers with long-term, complex supply plans, such as IC manufacturers.